What goes into writing a great movie script?

Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.

Don’t direct from the page. Everyone, from the director on down, wants to be part of the process of making movies. Let them do their work.

Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.

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Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.

Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.

People choose what to see based on the high concept. Make sure to deliver an ending consistent with the high concept -- it is what the audience paid for.

Dear atheist, do you realise that there is a God watching over you who will one day judge and condemn you for every wrong thing you have said and done before casting you into the lake of fire?

Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.

Outline everything. Use story beats. Keep character’s mouths taped up, until they absolutely MUST speak. Write the script and the dialogue at the last minute, after you’ve revised the hell out of the outline.

What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.

Why do I sweat so much after shower?

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.

Islam is definitely a very anti-LGBTQ religion, so why don't liberals ever stage pro-LGBTQ demonstrations at mosques or at the consulates/embassies of Muslim countries?

A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”

Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Can we trust the Bible when Constantine and the First Council of Nicaea took out many books of the Bible and altered existing translation by removing things?

Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.

Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.

Get up there yourself. Be in a movie. Take some acting (not writing) classes. Learn how a trained actor approaches a text. Learn why actors take roles. They do as much if not more than the writer does.

Why do people hate fat people so much, even people who aren't exactly supermodels themselves? It seems like such a deep, passionate hatred, like they're offended by fat people just existing. Fat people didn't do anything to them, so why hate them?

Cut everything that is not a payoff, or a setup for a specific payoff. “Omit needless words.” Think about the sparseness of joke telling, or Grimm Brothers.

To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.

Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

What should every American know before traveling to the UK?